Recently released statistics say that the percentage of adults younger than 30 who own a private business is the lowest in a generation. Today only 3.6 percent own a stake in a private company, compared to 6.1 percent in 2010. Even more troubling, this number was 10.6 percent in 1989.

President Obama came to Knoxville to give away $60 billion more in taxpayer money. He said he wants to give everyone free community college. What a guy! There is nothing more magnanimous than giving away other people’s borrowed money to political supporters.

In one of his few good decisions (and desperately in search of a positive legacy item), President Obama announced his plan to normalize relations with Cuba. It is a smart gesture of reconciliation that, coupled with free trade, will make a friend of an enemy 90 miles to our south.

Amid the run-up to the mid-term election, football began in earnest last week. The NFL is a nice respite for all who hate politics and political ads and yet still enjoy the primal pleasure of watching millionaires ripping each other to shreds.

In the aftermath of the robbery, assault and then police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., I can offer some advice: Be sure not to forget to also steal those AAA batteries for the flat-screen remote. It is frustrating to get home and not have them. Then you just have to turn around and go back to the convenience store, where they are expensive, and choke a hapless clerk to get your batteries.

It’s difficult to overstate the petulance of our president. In his latest press conference, Obama took credit for every perceived good and blamed Republicans for every perceived bad. He blasted Congress for going on vacation as he was leaving for his in Martha’s Vineyard. Between golf and fund raising, I’m surprised he has time for vacation.

Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists, bent on getting the old USSR band back together, shot down a Malaysian airliner. Rivaled only by Obama, Putin is adept at blaming others. He did so in this case, but since he shot down a plane full of Europeans, he might have angered more than Americans.